Fresh £4m funding for tech firm B-Secur

The firm, which develops pioneering heart monitoring technology, has won a second round of investment from a syndicate of some of the UK and Ireland’s leading investors, including Accelerated Digital Ventures (ADV) and Kernel Capital, manager of the Bank of Ireland Kernel Capital Growth Funds, both of which supported the firm’s previous funding round.

The announcement comes just weeks after B-Secur took centre stage at the world’s biggest consumer technology event, Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.

“Securing further investment at this critical stage recognises our rapid development over the past 18 months and the market relevance of B-Secur’s technology,” said B-Secur CEO, Alan Foreman.

“Most importantly, it’s a strong indicator of B-Secur’s growth potential on a global scale.”

The company, which now employs more than 35 staff in Belfast, has developed technology to harness the unique electrical signal of an individual’s heartbeat (ECG) as a means of personal authentication.

It launched its Heartkey brand at CES which combines unique user identification with advanced physiological monitoring for health and wellness purposes, including medical grade heart rate, stress and fatigue monitoring, which can be applied to everyday situations such as driving a car, or for real-time health monitoring in the home.

B-Secur is now partnering with some of the world’s top motoring manufacturers, global wearable and fitness tracker technology firms and leading semiconductor manufacturers, to embed Heartkey into multiple everyday technologies and wearables.

“Heartkey’s algorithms offer data protection for devices and vehicles,” added Mr Foreman.

“It also offers the added benefit of providing insights into an individual’s physical wellbeing, which enables a wide range of life-enhancing or potentially life-saving benefits.

“We’re at a really exciting stage for the business, we have forged very significant links with big name partners who recognise our technology’s value and importance to their own product development and this investment will allow us to continue driving our ambitions for B-Secur forward.”

Tong Gu, investment lead at ADV said: “When everyday wearables become medical grade devices, the importance of assuring who can access sensitive information is of the greatest importance.

“B-Secur’s Heartkey software enables any OEM to achieve near medical grade heart monitoring and tracking capability coupled with unique authentication. One product roadmap with two distinct solutions, all derived from one heartbeat (ECG) signal. We’re backing B-Secur for the second time because we truly believe in the product vision and the team.”

Jayne Brady, partner at Kernel Capital, said: “Since our first investment with B-Secur we have been impressed by the drive and determination of the management team and their highly skilled technical experts who have worked hard to elevate this technology and to pair it with partners and applications which we firmly believe will change how we live and work.

“They are at an exciting stage and we are very proud to support them in taking their vision forward on a global scale.”